The “Lipstick Effect” in Aesthetic Medicine

It is obvious that the economy is having an impact on the aesthetic medicine industry: its the “Lipstick Effect” in Aesthetic Medicine, a phrase coined by Leonard Lauder, Chairman of Estee Lauder, who saw a huge jump in lipstick sales after September 11th. During times of economic uncertainty, consumers load up on affordable luxuries as a substitute for more expensive items. For aesthetic medicine physicians, the lipstick effect manifests itself in patients choosing laser-assisted liposuction over surgical liposuction or dermal fillers and Botox over face lifts.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery’s (ASAPS) recently released report, 2008 Statistics on Cosmetic Surgery, outlines that 8,491,861 non-surgical procedures were done in 2008. However, this is a reduction of 11.7% over last year, and interestingly the only three growth non-surgical procedures were Calcium hydroxylapatite (Radiance) injections which was up 3%, chemical peels which were up 2.9% and laser skin resurfacing which had increased by 12%.

I think we’re going to see a trend of more minimally-invasive procedures over the more expensive procedures (like Fraxel laser which was down 37% last year). However some of the statistics are skewed because for example microdermabrasion and chemical peels are very common medical spa treatments and their numbers would not be indicated in the ASAPS numbers unless they were done by ASAPS members.

What I see happening is the purely cosmetic procedures are declining, but they are being tempered by minimally invasive procedures that are in need by the newly unemployed or divorced. In both of those situations, it’s important to shave 10 years off your face, and that is what most nonsurgical cosmetic procedures can do for a patient.

Jeff Russell